Critical Infrastructure Interdependency: Measuring a Moving Target

For half a century, supply-chain statistics have played a crucial role in guiding policymakers and business leaders about potential risks. Applying these statistics to Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) and analyzing them over time has revealed significant movements in the interdependencies and associated risks among various Critical Infrastructures (CI) over the past 25 years. This paper explores the roots of statistical analysis within Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP), examining how stakeholders can employ quantitative measures to gain a deeper insight into Critical Infrastructure Interdependency (CII) for strategic and tactical objectives. It will introduce Canada’s national economic indicators linked to CII and discuss the priorities indicated by these metrics. There are acknowledged limits to this methodology, which are discussed, and subsequent research is proposed to expand the actionable insights. Finally, we will propose a number of practical applications for CII metrics.